Tasty chili samples – From Over 80 Different Chili Booths! Live music all day, Sponsor promotional give-aways, Raffle items, A MASSIVE Kids Zone, The World Chili Eating Challenge, Capture memories in the Paparazzi Zone.

On Monday nights, come grab a controller and play your favorite classic Nintendo and Sega games on Sideshow's 80" TVs for a gaming experience like no other. Free to play! Plus, each week a game will be featured in a tournament with gift cards and prizes for the best button-mashers. Bring your friends and share a pitcher of Miller Lite or Coors Light for just $7!

Is having a church in a house legal in Orlando? The new neighbors have 40-50 people over every Sunday morning and not sure what if anything I can do about it. I'm not anti-church but this is a 6 house cul-de-sac. They literally bus people in via a church van that is in the driveway all the time. Any google search I try pulls back to many results for churches themselves.

Architect here. Not gonna say I'm an authority on the subject, but the things that immediately pop into my mind are (1) what is the land zoned for? Residential use and Worship use are different zonings. As Nakuke notes, having people over to worship is not illegal but if (as Pinky_Swear points out) they've filed to be an official church then you might be able to argue that as an official church they need to be on a parcel of land that is zoned differently. (2) The interior space needs to be modified to accommodate all these people. They may say, "I'm just having friends over." but the fire inspector/building officials won't buy it. Large assembly uses like a church often require sprinklers and more exits than a residential house will.

My advice is to (a) do some research on their property and their tax status, (b) write a polite letter to your county commissioner, and (c) contact the building officials. Most jurisdictions (Orlando and Orange County included) have simple to use reporting systems for code violations.

All that will take time however and so it might be worth just talking to your neighbor first. In fact, that's my recommendation, if for no other reason than you should be able to honestly say, "I asked him to cut it out before I called everyone else."

If you want to do some research into the codes, click here after you look up the zoning / land use maps from the county website which can be found here for Orange County and here for Seminole County. Unfortunately, the mapping systems are a bit crap.

When you're ready to file a complaint, Orange County has a simple system here

I imagine the issue is not what they are doing but it is the traffic, noise, and lack of privacy. It's irritating to have a huge amount of people invading your neighborhood on a weekly basis. It's completely disrespectful to your neighbors.

If you have concerns, I would suggest you go and talk to them about it to see if they can address it amicably (i.e you hear lots of people making loud sounds early Sunday morning). If they are not parking illegally and not making a commotion, there shouldn't be an issue. Good luck!

I 2nd this- you're better off trying to come up with a amicable solution before getting the city to shut it down. That's way better than pissing off your new neighbors and making an enemy. I've done that and it's not fun.

Well, having people over for worship is not illegal. So they will say they are only simply doing something together. But, I am sure this is a violation of the fire code, sticking 50 people into a house. Also, parking could be an issue. One question though, are they making a lot of noise (you could complain about that as well) or something? If not, what's the problem iwth it other than being an eyesore with the van parked outside?

If they're parked illegally you could get the cops out there to ticket them. I doubt that having people over for worship is illegal. Evidently the previous owners of my house used to do it. Let's just say the neighbors are glad I moved here.

There was a local case that generated a lot of publicity. It might have been late 1990s, early 2000s. I can't remember specifics and my Google searches have failed to bring up anything. I think it was a house in the Dr. Phillips area. Nearly every night of the week they'd fill up the neighborhood with cars for bible study. I think it was some sort of ultra-religious orthodox group. I'm not sure what ultimately happened. Maybe someone else remembers?

I live in an apartment complex which was basically a bunch of duplex/triplex units, all separate, that were rented out. There was one lady who lived one street behind me who ran a church out of her garage on weeknights, mostly Wednesdays. Our units were arranged so that her garage door faced the alleyway between my unit and the next one over, so it created this wonderful sound tunnel and we could hear. Absolutely. Everything. Loudly. They'd be playing music late into the night, near midnight, even though quiet hours were supposed to start at 9 or 10. This was what bothered us more than anything; I have no problem with people practicing their religion, but when it becomes disruptive and prevents me from sleeping at night, or from getting to my house after work (parking was also an issue with the amount of people they'd have), then it becomes a problem.

We complained to the management, and they told us that there was little they could do until they collected enough complaints. Apparently the woman actually owned her unit outright (she wasn't a renter, therefore not bound by their rules), but it was because of her that they'd put a clause in everyone's leases that you couldn't run a business out of your apartment. They'd tried to work things out with her in the past, and for a while their solutions would hold but eventually things would devolve again. She'd promise them it'd be one night a week only, and over by quiet hours, and that would be true... for a week, maybe two. Then back to the all-night singing. I think eventually the management gathered enough complaints and pursued some kind of legal action, or the lady moved, because things have been silent for about a year now.

OK but there is still a limit on how many people you can have in a building for a length of time. The county or city code enforcement might be able to help if asking for consideration doesn't work. Emphasize the problem is 50 freaking people next door every damn Sunday not what exactly they are doing over there. There is a thing called "right of enjoyment" and your neighborhood might not be zoned as anything but residential. There are also noise ordnance. Time for you to do some research.

Throw out the money lenders? I was really not wanting to take this all the way to Jesus as I would hope his plate is more full than dealing with traffic issues caused by well meaning but clueless parishioners.